If Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have increased the frequency of their visits to home state Gujarat in the election year, Aam Aadmi Party convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is nowhere behind to frequent the state where the party is keen to consolidate its base.
On Sunday, in a strategic move, Kejriwal held a meeting with Chhotu Vasava, chief of Bharatiya Tribal Party, and his son Mahesh Vasava and later jointly addressed the “Adivasi Sankalp Mahasammelan” at Chanderiya village in Bharuch. The leaders announced their pre-poll alliance and exhorted the tribal community to vote for the AAP and the BTP to remove the BJP from power.
The alliance is a jolt for the opposition Congress that has banked on the BTP’s support on several issues, including the Rajya Sabha elections.
Kejriwal minced no words in criticising both the BJP and the Congress and said those parties have made the rich richer whereas the AAP stood with the poor people. He said it is ironic that two of the richest people of India come from Gujarat and the poorest tribals also come from Gujarat.
In an emotional appeal, Kejriwal said he has come to Gujarat to have heart-to-heart relations with the people of the state and asked them to give a chance to the AAP for one time. “If you do not like our work then do not vote for us again,'' he said, adding that it is necessary to break the BJP’s “ego”.
Enlisting the work carried out by his party in Delhi, Kejriwal asked the tribal people to vote for it if they wished to improve the standards of health, education and create new jobs.
“First the British meted out injustice to the tribals and then our own people. Tribals have been resettled in the name of mega projects,” he observed.
The Delhi chief minister also targeted the BJP government in the state over the exam paper leak. In a lighter vein, he said that the Guinness Book of World Records had a meeting to include the BJP name for maximum number of papers leaked. In the last few years, there have been leaks after leaks in various examinations carried out under the BJP regime in Gujarat, he said.
Kejriwal challenged Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to hold one examination without the question paper being leaked.
Taking another dig at the BJP, the AAP leader asked if the saffron party did not find a single person from the 6.5 crore people of Gujarat (read Gujarati) that it appointed C.R. Paatil as its state president. Paatil is a Maharashtrian.
